Ride the Lightning

DUMB AND DUMBER: WHITE HOUSE “EXPLAINS” MISSING E-MAILS

March 24, 2008

Good grief. The White House, which has always looked dumb in its explanation for its many missing e-mails has inexplicably chosen to look dumber than ever. In its filing with the court on March 21st, the essence of the White House’s argument seems to be that, having failed to comply with the law in the first place, it is now too expensive to go back and try to salvage what e-mails it can find. Disingenuously, the filing also suggests that all the reports of missing e-mail are somehow “conjectural.”

Interesting argument, given the fact that an internal White House investigation said that computer experts could not locate a single e-mail from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney between September 30, 2003 and October 6, 2003 – the week when the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the Plame Wilson leak and set a deadline for administration officials to turn over documents and e-mails to federal investigators that contained any reference to Plame Wilson or her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Even more interesting given that the White House admitted that there were at least 400 other days between March 2003 and October 2005 where e-mails could not be located in either Cheney’s office or the Executive Office of the President.

As the noxious cherry on this odorous sundae, the White House has admitted the physical destruction of some of its hard drives, as part of established policy of course. The amazing thing is that this office finds it so difficult to comply with the Presidential Records Act and yet so easy to comply with its policy of tape recycling and hard drive destruction.

And yet the White House has the audacity to bleat about the hundreds of hours and potential monies it will take to conduct a full investigation and restoration effort. The White House has zero credibility in all this – if the court wants the truth here, it may have to order the employment of independent experts to assess the situation and report directly to the court. The White House is apparently much better at losing things than keeping them, especially during controversial time frames. In a world where information management is such a necessity, the White House seems to be specializing in information mis-management.

Don’t change that dial . . . more is sure to come . . . hopefully from an angry court.

E-mail:     Phone: 703-359-0700